Pretty Stuff, Ugly Stuff

The leaves continue to change. And while they are, and before they all fall off and turn to mulch, the sites are pretty cool. I wonder if we would think Fall was as cool, if we had it all year?

There's some gold (in 'dem dar' hills) every direction you look; even behind you.

Even the backyard mountain bike trails are lit up a bit by the golden leaves. And it certainly dresses up the singletrack. Oddly, even though I don't really like fall, I do like crunching through the leaves on the singletrack. I can only figure that it's because when I was back east, the leaves on the trail actually smoothed out those insane rock gardens, at least a little bit.

Speaking of bikes (Jeebus, don't I always!?), I really do like when manufacturers see a slightly better way to do things. Much more so, when that new thinking leads to light weight bits that we can attach onto our bikes. Though, I fall short of being a full-on weight weenie... I've spent way too much time being a bike mechanic, and I'm pretty picky with the way my own bikes work. So a new part can't just be light. It has to balance the aspects of weight and performance before I'll slap it on my steed. Along those lines, there is a tipping point between lightness, and good looks as well. You can push that balance a little further... but when you do, things get ugly (quite literally) in a massive hurry. Case in point;

The new brakes from EE Cycle Works. Some interesting ideas, decent improvement on weight, reportedly good performance, questionable marketing, but looks that make you want to run the other direction for fear that looking just one more time, will really convince your brain that someone did indeed put them on their bike.

Last night I decided to go for a jog. I hit up a local trail I don't run too often, but I especially try to skip on certain days since it's a multi-use trail and it is pretty busy with mountain bikes most days. Often times when I'm mountain biking, or even hiking for that matter, it really annoys me when you exchange pleasantries with someone, only to be completely ignored. Now I know why runners are always so cranky though... I passed at least 20 mountain bikes on my jog, and literally 2 people made "some" effort to yield, when it was fully their responsibility. Sadly, another instance where I am far from surprised that people have a rather lowly view of cyclists.

And since we're on the topic of people that just don't get it, how about our new neighbors that decided they needed their own "gated-community"?

You know, the whole giant gateway thing was cool, I've always liked it. But these new people moved in, and started with the posting of "Private Property" signs everywhere. Then came the "ADT Security" sign. Now they have an electric gate, complete with access code, that is lit up 24 hours a day. So much for a nice home surrounded by nature. And nevermind the fact that we live on a private, dead-end road, so there is almost zero excess traffic. Let's see what these "city-folk" think of their gate when we loose power, or have 4 feet of snow on the ground.

The whole thing this morning, made me want to steal the Sierra Trading Post box that the UPS man had to leave leaning up against the gate since he couldn't get in.